Ray Bradbury

Writer

Born: 22 August 1920

Died: 5 June 2012

Birthplace: Waukegan, Illinois

Best known as:

Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles

Name at birth: Raymond Douglas Bradbury

Ray Bradbury wrote the 1953 science fiction classic Fahrenheit 451, a tale of a futuristic society where reading is outlawed and books are burned at the title temperature. Ray Bradbury began publishing science fiction stories in pulp magazines like Weird Tales in the 1930s. Known primarily as a short story writer -- his most famous stories make up the collections The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951) -- Bradbury also wrote the novels Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the semi-autobiographical Dandelion Wine (1957), among many others. He also wrote episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and from 1985-92 his stories were retold in the cable TV series The Ray Bradbury Theater. He was also a sought-after screenwriter who wrote the 1956 film version of Moby-Dick with its director, John Huston. (Gregory Peck played Captain Ahab.) Ray Bradbury won nearly every major fantasy fiction award for his work, including a Grand Master Nebula Award in 1988. He was given the National Medal of the Arts by President George W. Bush in 2004.

Extra credit:

Ray Bradbury worked with his lifelong friend, Ray Harryhausen, on the movie The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms... Fahrenheit 451 was made into a 1966 movie directed by Francois Truffaut... Ray Bradbury was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002.